Sleepio week 4 – the going gets tough
I’ve been working my way through the Sleepio programme – designed by experts to help people with long-term sleep problems finally get some decent rest.
So far it’s been about looking at aspects of how we prepare for sleep and our connection between sleep and the bedroom.
Throughout the programme users keep their own sleep diary. After two weeks the app uses the data to calculate just how much sleep each user gets on average. Turns out I slept for an average of 6.75 hours during the first fortnight. That’s already an improvement – probably helped by knowing that the answer to insomnia could be on the way.
However, my hours of sleep are taken in chunks around hours of wakefulness. So the next step on the programme was to encourage the same amount of sleep, but all achieved without waking for any significant amount of time in the night.
This is where the going has got really tough. Without going into details (as I don’t want to spoil the surprise) there have been days this week when I have been seriously tired, but others where I’ve felt like real progress is being made.
This has been an excellent time to introduce the community of Sleepio users, who are supporting each other through the programme. Popping my head in here has made me realise quite a few things. First, there are many people out there with far worse sleep problems – getting just a couple of hours a night, if that. Second, that this is no magic fix. Solving a long-term sleep problem is a long-term programme, and there will be ups and downs. There was a third point, but I’ve forgotten what that was. If I remember, I’ll come back and fill it in – unless I remember at 4 in the morning, in which case I shall ignore it.
By now the Prof has also provided a range of strategies for dealing with a racing mind. There’s another interactive section too.
I experienced a few technical problems as this point, but an email to support brought back a pretty quick response from the ‘User Happiness Team’, which was lucid, not at all patronising – and worked. Ah yes – that third realisation is that I am very much attached to this programme now, and look forward to my weekly ‘meeting’ with the Prof and the new content. Still very optimistic, if somewhat struggling t keep my eyes open at times.
Just arrived at this page and would like to know more about the journey so far? Take a look at my Sleepio diary Week 3.
Image by Oldiefan from Pixabay
